Standoff Suspect Threatened to Use Machete on Cops

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An El Cajon man was taken into custody after a dangerous 6-hour SWAT stand-off.

Neighbors heard screaming, glass shattering and loud noises from the apartment unit on Dominguez Way late Tuesday.

6 Hour Standoff Ends in El Cajon

A man armed with two swords exited the apartment on Dominguez Way after a six-hour standoff with law enforcement officers. NBC 7's Brandi Powell reports. (Published Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013)

A neighbor told NBC 7 San Diego the tenant was angry that his wife had just filed for divorce.

“I watched through my window him tear his apartment up, 65-inch plasma TV, he put knives through. The hutch he’d throw down on the ground. He broke every dish in the house. He was just going crazy,” said neighbor John Aguilera.

Aguilera said he had never seen the suspect like that before.

When El Cajon police arrived around midnight, they found the victim outside of the apartment with facial injuries.

She was taken to the hospital with a broken nose and possibly broken ribs.

Ennis Staten, 38, invited them in but at the same time warned them he would injure them, officials said.

Lt. Tim Henton said Staten was armed with two swords and several knives and was threatening to hurt himself and others.

"He came to the door with several knives multiple times during the incident," Henton said. “He made statements that if any officer, you know, almost inviting officers in, and saying when they came in they were going to use the knives on him."

Around 5 a.m., officers sent tear gas into the apartment. Staten came out of the unit armed with two swords but refused orders to drop the weapons, police said.

SWAT used less-lethal rounds to disarm Staten and take him into custody, officials said.

More than a dozen people were evacuated from the area and given shelter at El Cajon Valley High School, according to Hillary Schuler-Jones, spokesperson for the San Diego Chapter of the American Red Cross.